Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Connolly when she speaks of trust. For many years these women and others who have engaged in this process had their abuse belittled. They had their rapes, sexual assaults and all of those negative experiences belittled. In fact some of them were actually gaslighted in their own reporting of this. Nobody in this House disagrees with the statement that this is wrong. However, this needs to be the watershed moment we often speak about. We must fully commit as a House that this will never happen to any other serving member now or into the future in our Defence Forces. This House sits for three days of the week. I am asking the Tánaiste, through the Business Committee, to ensure that when the matter comes before the House it is not only fully debated but also debated at a time that gives those in the Women of Honour and others who have engaged the opportunity to be in the Gallery to hear what their public representatives are saying on this issue. It is an issue we speak on but it has been their very real, lived experience and resulted in many of them losing their dedicated careers within the Defence Forces. Those careers should have been much longer than what they actually were. These people deserve not only to be heard but also to be seen to be heard if they are to draw a line under this so they can move on with their lives also.

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